Featured Faculty

Featured Faculty

Several influential media outlets featured the expertise of College faculty. Below is a snapshot of some of the interviews and articles that were included in prominent national, regional and international media.

Shira Gabriel, professor in the Department of Psychology, was quoted in an article in New York Magazine about “collective effervescence,” the need to connect with fellow, synchronized humans through protests, parties or sporting events. “It’s a special experience, that feeling of connection, of being in that giant crowd.”

Articles in England’s Daily Mail and the Buffalo News included research by Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, professor from the Department of Sociology, that showed poorer and less-educated older Americans are more likely to suffer chronic pain than those with greater wealth and more education, but the disparity between the two groups is much greater than previously thought. “I found that people with lower levels of education and wealth don’t just have more pain, they also have more severe pain.”

Articles in Smithsonian magazine, the New York Times and Yahoo News, featured the work of Peter Rogerson, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Geography, who developed a new method for calculating geographic centers using what is called an azimuthal equidistant map projection. According to Rogerson, the geographical center of North America is a town called Center in North Dakota.

A feature on NPR news interviewed Victor Albert, professor of Biological Sciences, about his research that explores the origins of carnivory in several distantly related plants, including the Australian, Asian and American pitcher plants. “What we found is that certain genes are only on in the pitcher leaf, or preferentially on in the pitcher leaf, and that some of these very likely have to do with the trap development.”

The USA Today article about President Trump’s ban on refugees from mostly Muslim nations could be used as propaganda by the Islamic State to recruit more violence-prone members quoted Michael A. Stefanone, professor in the Department of Communication, and Michelle Benson, professor in the Department of Political Science.

An article in the Huffington Post interviewed, Robert Adelman, professor in the Department of Sociology, about his research that showed no association between immigration patterns and higher crime rates. “There is a large literature about the contributions and benefits of immigrants in the communities they live in. From sheer population growth to economic revitalization, immigrants often bring social and economic vitality to cities and communities.”

In an article in Mouvement.net, a French magazine, Franck Bauchard, director of the Arts Management program and UB’s Techne Institute, was quoted regarding the Purple State and the 2016 U.S. election. The Purple State was a creative blend of performances and exhibitions on election night that explored the impact of social media on elections, voter behaviors and political polarization. “The Purple State probes the indeterminate condition of a democracy when the behaviors of voters become algorithmic.”